Record Brook - Boundary Road

River condition at the Record Brook-Boundary Road site (site code: DR183RECO2, site reference: 6081069) in the Donnelly River catchment has been assessed on several occasions as part of the Healthy Rivers program.  The most recent survey was undertaken between 17–18 August 2020.

Healthy Rivers assessments are conducted using standard methods from the South West Index of River Condition (SWIRC), which incorporates field and desktop data from the site and from the broader catchment. Field data collected include the following indicators, assessed over about a 100 m length of stream:

• Aquatic biota: fish and crayfish community information (abundance of native and exotic species across size classes, general reproductive and physical condition)
• Water quality: dissolved oxygen, temperature, specific conductivity, and pH (logged in-situ over 24 hours), as well as laboratory samples for colour, alkalinity, turbidity and nutrients
• Aquatic habitat: e.g. water depth, substrate type, presence of woody debris and detritus, type and cover of macrophytes and draping vegetation
• Physical form: channel morphology, bank slope and shape, bioconnectivity (barriers to migration of aquatic species), erosion and sedimentation
• Fringing zone: width and length of vegetation cover within the river corridor and lands immediately adjacent, structural intactness of riparian and streamside vegetation
• Hydrology: measures of flow (velocity) at representative locations (compared against data from stream gauging stations within the system)
• Local land use: descriptions of local land use types and activities (compared against land use mapping information for the catchment)

The Boundary Rd site was most recently assessed in August 2020. All known assessments are listed below:

For a subset of the assessments above, water quality loggers were deployed for extended periods (listed below). This enables assessment of water quality responses to changes in climate, streamflow and factors such as the intactness of vegetation within the river corridor. Amongst other things, longer term deployment allows detection of sub-optimal water quality conditions, which can be missed during the standard 24-hour assessment.

• 2016–2017 (Oct–May): Healthy Rivers
• 2017–2018 (Nov–March): Murdoch University for Healthy Rivers (Beatty et al. 2018)
• 2019–2020 (Dec–Feb): Healthy Rivers
• 2020–2021 (Aug–May): Healthy Rivers

Other departmental data: The Boundary Road site is about 150 m upstream of the Department of Water and Environmental Regulation's (the department) flow gauging station known as Record Brook – Boundary Road; site reference: 608007, which was in operation from the late 1980s to 2000.

Search the site code or site reference in the department’s Water Information Reporting (WIR) system to find data for this site and nearby sampling points (flows, surface water quality, groundwater monitoring, the department's meteorological data). See also the Bureau of Meteorology website for additional meteorological data for the area.

The species expected to occur here are based on species found at the site and elsewhere within the wider subcatchment. As differences in habitat within a reach naturally influence species distributions, and variability in methods between sampling programs can affect the species caught, this list is only indicative.

Note: collection of fauna from inland aquatic ecosystems across Western Australia requires a licence from the Department of Primary Industries and Regional Development (DPIRD) and the Department of Biodiversity, Conservation and Attractions (DBCA). All species collected must be reported to these agencies as part of licence conditions.

Only freshwater fish and crayfish that typically inhabit river channels are targeted by the standard SWIRC sampling methods, however other species are sometimes captured or observed.  The following species were detected at the site:

• Tadpoles and amphipods were recorded in nets in Oct 2016.

Macroinvertebrate sampling has not been carried out at this site as part of the SWIRC assessments to date.

For more information on these and other aquatic species, please see the River Science fauna page.